


CoraSpine

by orphan_account



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-12
Updated: 2014-05-25
Packaged: 2018-01-24 10:42:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1601996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Spine's day could not get any worse.<br/>First, his siblings hide his hat. Second, it starts raining. Third, QWERTY has been acting up. Fourth, he can't find the weird doll Hatchworth gave him anywhere.</p><p>Fifth, He's found a door.</p><p>A door that shouldn't exist.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Doll

It was a cool spring afternoon in San Diego. It was the 21st of April, not that the day was of any importance to the inhabitants of the Walter Manor. It was only another day, just as the last one was. Except a strange gust of wind, out of place in sunny southern California, bit at everyone's neck. It was a bit eerie and creepy for what was supposed to be a warm spring day, but no one paid any mind. The sound of wind chimes was audible in the distance, calming and quiet. It was days like this where the Spine would have liked to sit outside on one of the balconies or on the porch, but he had other issues at hand. 

"Rabbit? Where's QWERTY?" The Spine yelled while walking out of the Hall of Wires. He was met with silence, a sign his sister wasn't anywhere near him. That would mean he would have to find the flat computer screen himself, to his displeasure. Why couldn't he just not find QWERTY? Everyone was better off without the dang thing, anyway. 

The Spine shook his head and headed down the hallway, sticking his head through every door he passed on the way to the copper robot's room. 

While examining the Chamber of Cheeseburgers, someone bumped into him, metal clanking onto metal. 

"Oh, hey T'Spine!" Rabbit chirped, looking into the chamber with him and then muttering to herself. 

"What was that?" The Spine asked, curious as to what she had said. 

"Oh. I was only countin'. I was bored and sulkin’ around the manor so Six told me to count all the windows and doors! Except that we only have one door," She sighed, looking sort of disappointed, "but we have 35 windows so far!" 

"That's great, Rabbit. Tell me if you see QWERTY at all, they aren't in the H.O.W." The Spine told her. Rabbit nodded her head, smiling at him. 

"Alright! Say, I should try the W.O.W. next.." She said, trailing off her sentence as she wandered off. 

"World of Warcraft?" The Spine questioned, why would his sister play an RPG at a time such as this? She turned back around for a moment. 

"No, dumbins! Walk of Windows! That whole hallway made with a buncha windows on the third floor! See ya' T'Spine!" With that, his sister hurried down the hallway, the faint sound of her voice counting in the distance. 

The Spine gave a weak wave goodbye to the robot, even though he didn’t think she saw, and set back out to find QWERTY. He looked through all of the bathrooms, all of the bedrooms, even the kitchen. The computer screen was nowhere to be found. By the time evening grew close, he had no luck. He did, however, bump into a Steve Negrete. 

“The Spine! What are you doing wandering around aimlessly?” He asked, crossing his arms in front of him. The Spine gave an exhausted sigh and explained his dilemma. “QWERTY? Haven’t seen the darn thing. Although, I know Hatchworth was looking for you earlier. I think he’s in the downstairs living room.” 

“Oh, alright.” The Spine said, giving up on his quest for QWERTY for a moment to go find his younger brother. He walked past Steve and headed towards the living room, down a staircase and around the corner. No one was in there. 

“Hatchworth?” He called, looking around, “I’m pretty sure we aren’t playing Hide and Go Seek as of the moment.” 

“Oh, The Spine!” The Spine jumped, turning around to see Hatchworth only just entering the room. “I was looking for you, but you seemed to have something better to do all day.. Look what I found!” 

There in Hatchworth’s hand was a one-foot tall Spine rag doll, limp in his hand. The silver was a grey yarn, big black buttons sewn onto the eyes. The hat was made of felt, as was the small outfit on the doll. The Spine stared at it for a moment to take the strange doll in. 

“That’s creepy, Hatchworth.” The Spine stated, after consideration. Hatchworth shrugged and looked down. 

“I thought it was neat. I think a fan might have made it, don’t you? It’s sort of cute..” Hatchworth complimented, smiling down at the doll in his hands. 

“Where did you find it?” The Spine asked, snatching the doll from Hatchworth to look at it. 

“Rabbit found it while she was counting the windows upstairs. She seemed pretty freaked out by it when I ran into her in the hallway. She threw it at me and ran off. I just think it’s cute. Maybe I have one too!” Hatchworth smiled, excited. He ran out of the room, eager to get to wherever Rabbit found the doll. 

“Go look for your own then, Hatchy.” The Spine mumbled, not that the other robot heard him before hurrying out. While walking out of the room and looking at his doll, He almost ran into Peter Walter VI if he didn't look up. 

“Hello, Peter.” The Spine said, looking up. 

“What have you got there, Spine?” Peter asked, taking a look at the doll. “I thought you were too old for toys.” 

“Oh, no. This?” The Spine asked, holding the doll up by a few fingers, He shrugged. “Hatchworth found it. Some kind of fan-gift Rabbit threw at him, I guess.” 

“It’s sort of cute, I guess. The eyes are sort of creepy.” He commented, pointing at the button eyes. 

“Says the man with no face.” 

“Says the silver robot that can take his head off his body.” Peter shot back, The Spine could feel the smile on Peter’s face and he smirked. 

“Touche.” The Spine laughed, passing Peter and frowning when he was sure Peter couldn’t see his face. We all are a bit creepy, The Spine thought. The doll is nothing. 

As The Spine walked back to the Hall of Wires, opening the lone door, QWERTY the computer screen shot out in front of him. 

[TH3 5PL33N, W4T U DO1N :?] 

“QWERTY, I’ve been looking for you all day. Where were you? The wi-fi’s been down on the second floor and I-” 

[D3M0N D0LL D3MON D0LL 4DD1NG R4NCH DR3551NG] A large bottle of ranch dressing appeared in 

QWERTY’s arm, the top of the bottle pointed at the doll, ready to shoot. The Spine glared at QWERTY and shielded the doll, throwing an arm around it. 

“QWERTY, the doll’s fine. It’s from a fan. What’s gotten into you? Maybe I should check your program for bugs.” The Spine mumbled, taking a step towards the computer. 

[BUG5 :? QW3RTY H4S BUG5] Several plastic spiders shot out of the side of the flat screen, dirtying the floor. 

“That’s nice, QWERTY. Let me just shut you down for the night.” The Spine pressed some buttons on the side of the room, by a large jumble of wires, and QWERTY shut down. The Spine sighed and took off his hat, the mechanics around him separating his body from his head. When out of his chasis, he slithered up the walls, keeping steady with thin wires, and curled up into some higher wires, shutting his brain down for much needed stasis. 

Not knowing that the doll was taken with him, a piece of it’s yarn caught in a spike on his neck. It was supported up against his face, curled in the wires with him.


	2. The Door

When the Spine powered on, he was annoyed to find he was not in the Hall of Wires. In fact, he wasn’t even on the same floor as the Hall of Wires. He tried to analyze where he was, or access the manor’s wifi, but it wasn’t working. 

“Hello?” He called out in a raspy voice, his audio just being powered on, annoyed. He heard footsteps and the creaking of the door, letting light shine in his eyes. He gave a minute for his photoreceptors to readjust. 

“The Spine? What on Earth are you doing in a supply closet?” When his eyes adjusted, he could see the short blue hair of their newest Walter Girl. 

“Miss Chelsea. I don’t know, It has something to do with Rabbit and Hatchworth most likely.” The Spine sighed as Chelsea hesitated, picking the Spine’s head up. 

“Um. Okay. This isn’t creepy.” She mumbled, holding his head up. The Spine rolled his eyes. 

“Can you please take me to the Hall of Wires? I have to reconnect to my body and then find the other robots in the house,” The Spine sighed as she looked at him with a confused look, “...second floor, third door to the right.” 

“Way ahead of you!” Chelsea smiled and then widened her eyes. “Oh goodness, I didn’t mean for that to be a p-” 

“Not in the mood, Miss Chelsea.” The Spine grumbled. 

When they reached the hall, Chelsea was all but saddened by letting The Spine go. She rushed out as soon as he was safely in the room, not saying a single word. The Spine sighed and slithered over to the wires, them taking him up and putting him into his chassis.. 

Only to find his chassis was wearing a frilly pink cocktail dress. 

“Are you kidding me.” The Spine sighed. He reached up to his head to find that not only was his hat not there, but instead of his normal black wig there laid a curly blonde one. The rage soared through his body as he stormed out of the hall and into the hallway. His sensors told him he stepped on something so he looked down. 

“Oh.” He sighed, picking up the small Spine rag doll. “I didn't mean to step on you.” He tried to come up with a reason as to why he spoke to the doll, but he passed it off as being a side-effect of anger and placed the doll on his shoulder. 

“Rabbit? Hatchworth? Anyone? Please come out, this is ridiculous.” The Spine shouted. He heard giggles behind him and as soon as he whipped around, he saw the flash of a camera. 

“Got you!” Rabbit shouted, laughing as she held up the camera. “Oh, the fans will love this!” 

“I am sorry The Spine. She tricked me into helping her.” Hatchworth said, standing scared behind Rabbit. The Spine glared at Rabbit and she stopped laughing, tensing up. 

“Where are my clothes.” He asked, his voice low and his glare still strong. 

“Um... You see..” Rabbit trailed off. 

“Where. Are. My. Clothes.” The Spine said, his spikes ripping through the fabric on the back of the dress. Hatchworth and Rabbit’s eyes widened. 

“In the kitchen, on the counter! Please don’t hurt me!” Rabbit screeched, running off with Hatchworth trailing behind her. 

“I couldn’t even if I wanted to.” The Spine grinned, pulling off the blonde wig and heading to the kitchen. 

Upon pulling the wig off was the time at which he realized the doll was missing from his shoulder. He shrugged it off, he must have dropped it. Someone will find it and return it. 

When he arrived in the kitchen, sure enough, there were his clothes neatly folded on the center of the counter. He picked them up and rushed out, not noticing another entering the kitchen. 

“Oh, The Spine... That’s not a very good color on you.” Peter Walter VI said, motioning to his dress. The Spine grumbled. 

“Exactly why I am changing immediately, sir,” The Spine huffed, walking past the man and heading back upstairs to the Hall of Wires. 

Once he had changed and was situated in his usual attire, he noticed his hat was missing. They must have hidden that somewhere else, he thought with a moan. He decided to ask the robots before doing anything. He turned on his wi-fi. 

[Where is my hat?] He asked over the internet chat. 

[It was not with your clothes?] Hatchworth replied. A notification in The Spine’s interface told him Hatchworth was the only other one connected to the chat. 

[No, and I’m not in the mood for games right now.] 

[I will ask Miss Carolina.] Hatchworth ended, exiting the chat. The Spine sighed, heading out of the hall to search for his prized fedora. He looked in Rabbit’s room first, on impulse, but all there was was a mess of photographs and a worn bed. He walked all around the second floor, looked in the rooms before giving up and heading downstairs to one of the studies. 

He flopped onto the old sofa, a floral one they’ve kept in the manor since Peter the First’s days. He was exhausted, he’d admit, from running around all day looking for possessions of his. He glanced around the room quickly, as to say he’d searched it, when he spotted a flicker of silver under a desk. He immediately dropped to the ground, scooting off his seat, and crawled over to the silver. The small rag doll sat, along with his hat, on the floor under the desk. 

“Thief, aren’t you.” The Spine joked, picking up his hat and taking the doll. His glance shifted to the wall behind the desk. 

A faint outline of a keyhole looked back at him. 

“What?” The Spine breathed, running over the outline of the hole with the tip of his finger. 

There weren’t supposed to be any other doors in the manor, other than the one to the Hall of Wires. 

“The Spine?” A voice behind him said a bit loud, causing the Spine to bump his head on the top of the desk. He turned around. 

“Miss Carolina!” The Spine said, immediately standing and regaining his stoic posture. 

“I’m glad to see you’ve found your hat, Hatchworth was worries, but what are you doing under the desk?” She asked, curious. 

“I found a door.” He said softly, pointing under the desk. Carolina put her hands on her hips. 

“A door, huh? I thought doors weren’t supposed to exist in the manor.” 

“Yes, but, there is one. Look.” The Spine got back on his knees, motioning for Carolina to follow him. He shoved the desk aside and ran his finger over the outline of the small door, wallpaper pasted over it. He cut it out with his fingertip, outlining the door through the wallpaper. Carolina got down on her knees, careful in her dress, and tried to pull the door open. 

“A locked door, even more odd,” She mumbled to herself. She immediately lit up and turned to the Spine. “I’ll be right back.” 

She stood and ran out of the room, only to return minutes later with a ring of keys in her hand. The Spine’s brows shot up. “Pappy- I mean, Peter the First’s keys? Where’d you find those?” 

“Oh, Six keeps them in the freezer for whatever reason. I’ve stopped questioning things since starting working here.” She shrugged, kneeling beside him once again to try the couple keys there were on the ring until finding one that worked, a slick black key, shiny after blowing the dust off of it. She turned the key and opened the door. 

Nothing. The door led to a bricked wall. 

“What?” The Spine mouthed, sadly. 

“Well, that’s disappointing.” Carolina laughed, getting up to leave. She was halfway out of the room when the Spine called back to her. 

“You didn’t lock it, Miss Carolina.” 

She spun back around and gave him an odd look. “There’s no real use in locking a door that leads nowhere, right? Sometimes I question the residents of this household..” She muttered, walking out of the room, leaving the Spine to stare at the door with disappointment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoa i wonder what the door will do


	3. The Other Manor

The Spine sadly, slowly, steadily slumped up the staircase to the second floor. Unfortunately, when he was halfway through with the stairs, he realized he had left the yarn doll downstairs. He checked his internal clock: 10:15. He must have missed dinner by now, while he was looking for his fedora. Did he really want to go all the way back downstairs to fetch some weird doll? 

His cloudy mind told him yes, even though he was tired enough for a week’s worth of work. He groaned and turned around, thumping back down the stairs. The few dim lights in the manor hallways told him that most of the residents had gone off to their bedrooms to call it a day, something he should do soon. After he got the doll, of course. 

He followed the familiar path to the study he had found his hat in. He looked back at the little doorway to find the doll halfway sticking out from behind the door. 

“Isn’t that cute. Carolina must have stuck him in the doorway.” He mumbled, opening the door and taking the doll out.. but in the space where the bricked wall once was, a small tunnel stared back at him. 

“What the..” The Spine whispered. He looked around for someone, eager to believe he was once again being joked with, but when no one jumped out and yelled ‘Gotcha!’ he came to the conclusion it was for real. He carefully got down on his knees and stuck his head into the small door, He was about to bring his head back out and close the door, if not for the wonderful smell of freshly baked cookies wafting through the door. Robots don’t eat, The Spine always said, but that doesn’t mean we can’t. 

He crawled into the small door and into the small, softly colored hallway. It was just big enough for him to crawl through to the other side, and it’s colors, the periwinkles and purples and blues, all were soft on his photoreceptors, causing a sort of comfortable feeling inside of him, as if it were natural for him to crawl through the space. Upon arriving to the other side, after a moment of crawling, he realized he had just gone in a complete circle back into the manor. The same study stared back at him as he looked back through the colorful hallway. 

“Well, that was uneventful.” The Spine sighed to himself, getting himself up off the ground and brushing dust off his vest. 

Then, he smelt the cookies again. The wonderful smell drew him to the kitchen, through the usual path he took. He walked in on.. Rabbit. Rabbit was making cookies. 

“You’re making cookies? Why are you making cookies a-” He stopped when she turned around. 

Her metal face did not greet him back, instead, a kind face of flesh stared back at him, dressed in his sister’s clothing. Instead of where her eyes should have been, this is the part that shocked The Spine the most, there were big, round, shiny, green and blue buttons. 

“I just decided to! I heard you would be here, and I thought that I should make them for you, The Spine!” She babbled, smiling at the Spine and walking towards him. On her hand was a baking glove and in that, a tray of cookies. “Be careful though, they’re hot, straight from the oven!” 

“You’re not Rabbit.” The Spine managed to get out after taking in the sight of his now-human-button-eyed sister. 

“Oh no, Spine! I’m your Other Sister. Could you go tell Hatchworth that there are cookies ready? I’m sure he’d love some!” 

“You mean the Other Hatchworth.” The Spine commented. Other Rabbit just smiled back at him. 

“The better Hatchworth, honeybee. He should be in the music room around the corner!” She said, shooing him away. The Spine raised a bow, but left for the music room. He dismissed this all as being just a dream, so he guessed he could play along with Other Rabbit’s plans. He reached the room, oddly enough, it had a door. 

All the rooms had doors here. 

“Hatchworth?” The Spine knocked, slowly opening the door. “Rabbit says there are cookies re-” 

When he opened the door, a fleshed Hatchworth was standing before him, bright blue buttons looking right at him. All around his feet were small mice. 

“Gross! Do we have a rodent problem in the other world? I sho-” 

“Oh, no! These are my friends, the fancy shoe’d mice!” Hatchworth explained, smiling. Upon closer examination, all of the mice which stood before Hatchworth had small pairs of exquisite shoes on their feet. 

“Oh,” The Spine replied, as if accepting this as a perfectly normal thing to happen, “Well, cookies are ready..” 

“Oh, boy!” Hatchworth exclaimed, jumping out of the circle of mice, “I hope we have milk to go with it!” He ran ahead of the Spine, leaving the Spine to stare at the mice. It was weird, but then again, this whole thing was weird. He closed the door and let them be. 

When he walked back to the kitchen, they were not there. He checked the dining room, only to see that they were waiting for him at the end of the table. 

“Here’s your cookie, The Spine!” Other Rabbit smiled and pushed a larger-than-normal cookie towards him. He looked at the cookie, taking in the scent and his mouth almost watering- if it could- at the melty chocolate chips. Then, as if with magic, a curly script appeared on the cookie in bright green frosting. 

“Welcome Home?” The Spine read off the cookie, the icing was now making little gears around the words. 

“We’ve been waiting for you, The Spine! We’re so glad you’re here.” Hatchworth smiled, clapping his hands together. The Spine furrowed his brows, it was somewhat creepy, the cookie. He wasn’t sure he wanted to eat it. 

“Oh, um, my systems are telling me I must shut down,” The Spine made the excuse, “I need to get to the Hall of Wires-” 

“Alright! We’ll see you soon, The Spine.” Rabbit smiled, running over and hugging him. Hatchworth hugged him too, commencing a robot-family hug. The Spine smiled at their sweetness, and left the room, waving goodbye. 

He took a long walk to the Hall on the second floor, marvelling at the newly-added decorations in the manor. There were swirls and strings of lights adorning the once-blank walls. The pictures moved, waving at him as he passed. 

Once he made it to the hall, QWERTY stopped him. 

“QWERTY? Oh, you must be the Other QWERTY.” The Spine sighed, trying to slip past it. QWERTY stayed in the way of his path. 

[TH3R3 15 0NLY /0N3/ QW3RTY, SPL33N] It said through it’s monotone voice. 

“Then you’re the QWERTY from the other manor?” The Spine asked. 

[TH15 /15/ TH3 0TH3R M4N0R :?] 

The Spine stared at it confused, and then shook his head and walked past, pushing QWERTY aside. “Look, I just have to shut down. My systems are tired.” 

[D0N’T TRU5T TH3M] QWERTY turned around to say. The Spine looked back at QWERTY. 

“What?” 

[D3PL0Y1NG: C4LL M3 M4YB3] It said, before playing the pop song at full blast until it wore itself out. 

“Right. Okay.” The Spine laughed, shaking it off as just QWERTY’s silliness as he disconnected from his body and went under a deep stasis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im rlly happy people are liking this so far  
> thanks for reading guys :)
> 
> edit: ok the spine being the only one not human thing is on purpose, you'll see why soon

**Author's Note:**

> coraline is one of my all-time favorite movies  
> a few days ago everyone was freakin out about a coraline/spg crossover and i was like  
> yes  
> i must do the thing  
> so yeah im writing the thing now  
> dont judge me


End file.
